Jesse Parker, D.M.A., is the Artistic Director of the Chesapeake Chorale and Chamber Singers. Dr. Parker and the Chorale have enjoyed a highly successful collaboration and have presented a wide range of repertoire including music ranging from Brahms, Bach, Mozart, and Poulenc, and by numerous contemporary composers, to Pop, Broadway, Queen, and Burt Bacharach. Bringing new music to the concert stage is one of the hallmarks of their collaboration including the commissioning of Libby Larsen’s “If Music Be the Food of Love” premiered by Dr. Parker and the Chorale as part of the Chorale’s 30th Anniversary Season. He is also the Founder and Music Director of Voices 21 and the Director of Music at Potomac United Methodist Church. For eleven years he was the Director of Music Ministries at Chevy Chase United Methodist Church. Before creating Voices 21 and joining the Chesapeake Chorale, he was the Associate Conductor of the Maryland Handel Festival, and he has served on the faculties of the University of Maryland and Sweet Briar College. He studied conducting with Paul Traver at the University of Maryland, where he earned a doctorate in music, and for more than ten years assisted Dr. Traver in preparing the Maryland Chorus for performances in the U.S. and Europe, with many renowned conductors including Leonard Slatkin, Lorin Maazel, Georg Solti, Zubin Mehta, Antal Dorati, and John Nelson. Dr. Parker has conducted on tour abroad with performances in Austria, France, Italy and Ireland. In July 2000, he was one of eight regional conductors to be selected by the National Symphony Orchestra to prepare choirs for the premier of Maury Yeston’s “An American Cantata”, conducted by Leonard Slatkin. Dr. Parker has been active in the Washington area for over 20 years holding conducting positions in churches and with a number of community groups including serving as the conductor of the Preparatory Orchestra at the Washington Conservatory of Music and more recently as the Principal Conductor of the NIH Chamber Orchestra. Dr. Parker is also the Resident Conductor of Chevy Chase Chamber Music Society with whom he has performed Stravinsky's “L’Histoire du Soldat” and a chamber arrangement of Mahler's Symphony No. 4. In demand as a clinician, adjudicator, and lecturer, Dr. Parker most recently lectured at the Smithsonian in an evening devoted to the Rat Pack. Previously, he had lectured for the Smithsonian exploring Bernstein’s West Side Story from inception to its current Broadway revival. The lectures were part of the Resident Associates Programs. Currently, Dr. Parker is an instructor at Montgomery College in the WD&CE Department.
